7 The truth of reincarnation in the Bible

The truth of reincarnation was on Jesus’ mind when he spoke of how we need to be reborn. It’s not hard to see that we will stagnate if we’re not constantly rediscovering and rebirthing aspects of our true selves as we do this work to know ourselves better. Physical rebirth is an unalterable component of this same process. It would be pure folly to assume that we could complete all of the development we need to do in one short life. This defies any logic and all common sense.

So Holy Scripture hints at the truth of reincarnation in the concept of being reborn. But it’s stated as a boldface fact in the clear expression that John the Baptist was a reincarnation of Elijah. In the early years after the life and death of Jesus Christ, in fact, teaching reincarnation was a normal part of the Christian religion. So early Christians knew perfectly well that reincarnation was a true reality.

It was later on that church fathers saw how the knowledge of the truth of reincarnation was misused in Eastern traditions. So they took action to remove this danger; they took it out of the Bible. The misuse they witnessed in Eastern cultures was that of a fatalistic attitude toward life: “It doesn’t matter what I do—it’s karma. I have to go through this and there’s not a thing I can do about it.” It’s not hard to imagine how this set people back.

But the opposite extreme is no winner either. Denying this truth brought about a different damaging attitude. We placed an overemphasis of free will on ourselves, but did so with a superficial finger-wagging attitude of “I’d better behave or I’m going straight to you-know-where.” So then the fear of just about everything—fear of God, fear of not being good enough, fear of not fulfilling “the law”—caused just as much harm.

Listen and learn more.

Bible Me This, Chapter 7: Reincarnation in the Bible